Archive for category Vegetables

Hello! I feel somewhat a stranger here, on my very neglected blog. My move and complete life changing last year has been pretty much wonderful but has left little time for cooking and blogging new things. I am so grateful for the people that have still visited here over the last year.

So what do we eat here in New Hampshire? Well soup is an obvious choice especially in the sub zero winter conditions we now have! Working from home is new to me and having to think of 3 meals a day for the two us and our varied tastes is sometimes a chore. Soup is something we do both enjoy, as long as it is substantial enough for my husband. So bean soup works perfectly for us, its filling enough for my husband and I love making a pot of soup that will feed us lunch for up to 4 days, one less meal to think of!

I love the variety of beans I can buy here and have pretty much bought a pack of every variety I see. Cranberry, Great Northern, Navy, light red and dark red kidney, Black, Yellow eyed the list goes on. All these beans are heart healthy, low fat, and protein rich and when mixed with a few other ingredients makes a filling, healthy meal.

As the title suggests any bean will do for this soup. Depending on the color of the bean its not always a pretty soup but it makes up in taste what it lacks in looks! I do use dry beans which will need an over night soak so as long as you do not forget that step the rest is fairly quick.

Any Bean’ll Do Soup

ingredients

250 grams (8 oz) beans of your choice, for the soup pictured I used Great Northern Beans

2 litres (2 quarts) stock

1 onion, chopped

2 organic carrots, chopped

1 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp dried rosemary

salt and black pepper to taste

method

Soak your beans overnight, completely covered in cold water.

When you are ready to make your soup, drain and rinse the beans and place into a large stock pot along with the stock.

Bring the beans up to a boil then add the carrot and onion reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until the beans are tender, this could take up to 45 minutes depending on the beans you are using but I find 30 minutes usually does it.

Partially blend the soup using an immersion blender. Blend to your taste, go as smooth or chunk as you like.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note

I prefer a chunky soup while my husband prefers a smoother soup so I find this partial blending suits us.

Depending on the stock you use you may not need extra salt.

This soup will keep in a Tupperware for a couple of days in the fridge, it also freezes well.

A partially frozen lake not far from us.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Its been a long time since I was here! I took an unplanned summer break which carried on into autumn! I have been busy, posting here was beginning to feel a chore and I was fast running out of ideas. Truth is even though I have a food blog when life gets busy I tend to stick to the same handful of recipes. I am out of the house for 12, sometimes more, hours on a work day so I don’t always have time to think of new meals. What I do end up cooking is usually not the kind of thing that would make an interesting post! And actually this last few months has been anything but typical!

There has been a reason for my distraction. I am moving, in just under a week, to America! New Hampshire is where we are heading, to the White Mountains. I can hardly believe I’m saying that, even though suitcases are packed and so much has been donated, sold and rescued by kind friends! I’m excited, scared, sad to say goodbye but looking forward to our new start.

Throughout the summer we had a bountiful supply of green beans from the allotment which resulted in me making this green bean dish many times. It was hard to keep up with our bean supply this year and often when we went to pick them they were huge, luckily this recipe is not fussy as to the type of bean, the beans end up meltingly soft. We have it served with chicken but Id be happy eating a bowl of these beans with a chunk of bread.

So often the dishes that stay with me are the simplest ones and this is the case with this bean recipe, just a few ingredients cooked together in one pan makes for a delicious vegetable dish that even my husband will eat, in fact he loves this!

It will be a while before I post again as we leave in just a few days, I cant wait to share our new adventure here so watch this space!

Turkish Beans

ingredients (4 portions)

350 grams green/French beans, topped and tailed and cut into pieces

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

salt and pepper

1 tsp sugar

water to cover the beans

method

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions until softened.

Add the garlic and fry for a minute while stirring.

Add everything else, stir then add water, enough to just cover the beans.

Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for around 40 minutes. The beans will be very soft and the sauce reduced.

Share this:

Like this:

Today I wanted to share my green bean recipe. It’s not really a recipe, more an idea, just four ingredients that go very well together.

I made these lemony beans one Christmas a few years ago. We had my Mother in law for dinner and although she appreciates the effort made she is the least foodie person you could imagine and she doesn’t eat vegetables! However it was Christmas and I wanted everything to be different, special, so that day I tossed the French beans in some butter and lemon zest, even if I would be the only one to eat them. Well I loved them but I had the shock of my life when not only did my non-vegetable eating husband try one but he liked them and had more!

To this day this is the only way my husband will eat French beans! I think we were both surprised that simply tossing some beans in lemon and butter would be what made him start to eat French beans! I have since swapped the butter for olive oil as it feels a little healthier but tastes just as good.

Green Beans with a Lemon Dressing

ingredients (serves 2)

150 grams French beans, (you may call them dwarf beans), topped and tailed

1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

zest of half a small lemon

sea salt to taste

method

Steam or boil your beans until just tender, 3-4 minutes if boiling, 5-6 if steaming.

Drain the beans and pour the olive oil in the pan you used to cook the beans (saves on washing up).

Turn the heat on low, add the lemon zest, salt and beans. Toss to coat and serve immediately.

Spring is here! Actually it’s been here for a while, the earliest blossom has finished and almost all of the trees have their leaves. We have even had some lovely sunny days. However, to me, a sure sign of spring is when British asparagus arrive. I got my first bunch last week, exciting times!

Wherever your asparagus comes from this soup is a quick way to enjoy them. I had seen an asparagus soup recipe with a Thai theme and I still may try that one but for the first asparagus of the season I wanted the asparagus to be the star of the show. So this soup has just a few ingredients, asparagus with a little onion, a waft of garlic and a hint of lemon grass. Its light and fresh, clean eating at its best.

Asparagus soup with a hint of Lemongrass

ingredients

1 bunch of asparagus

1 small onion

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic, peeled but left whole

1 stalk of lemongrass

500 ml vegetable stock

method

Prepare the asparagus by washing, snapping the woody ends off and chopping. Dice the onion and peel the garlic, leaving it whole.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the onion and whole garlic clove and sauté until softened.

Remove the garlic clove and add the asparagus. Stir to coat in the oil and sauté for a couple of minutes.

Peel off the outer layer of lemongrass and bash the stalk firmly with a wooden spoon to bruise it and slightly split it to release its flavour. Add to the asparagus and onion,

Add the vegetable stock to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes, until the thickest asparagus are softened.

Remove the lemongrass and purée the soup, I use a blender but an immersion blender would be fine. Purée until smooth.

I can be very forgetful, its something I worry about occasionally but then I remember that I’ve been the same way for many years so I hope its more the sign of a busy brain rather than a declining one. Occasionally my forgetfulness can be a good thing, like when I made this soup. I wanted to make a butternut squash soup that was not as sweet as they often are so I decided to include chipotle powder to mine to add a hot smokiness. I went on to get the ingredients together and chopped my vegetables, including a red chili pepper. When preparing the soup as soon as I stirred the chipotle powder in, it occurred to me that I already had a chili pepper in the pan! When chopping that red chilli I had forgotten I was adding the chipotle despite the chipotle been the main reason I was making the soup! I stood staring at the pan but it was too late to do anything other than cross my fingers and hope my tongue would survive!

This is a hot soup, but I loved it! The smoky chipotle compliments the sweet butternut really well. If you don’t like food so hot, I wouldn’t add that extra chili pepper, just stick with the chipotle. However if you don’t mind some heat go for both! I found the soup somehow less hot the next day.

Butternut and Chili soup

ingredients

1 medium butternut squash, de seeded and cut into chunks

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1/2 red chili

1/2 tsp chipotle powder

500 ml stock, vegetable or chicken

method

Put the chunks of butternut into a roasting tray and pour over 1 tbsp of the olive oil, stir so all the butternut gets coated in the oil. sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast in a preheated oven 200 C, 400 F, Gas 6 for around 40 minutes until the butternut is soft and the edged starting to brown.

Heat the other tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion, celery and chili pepper over a medium heat until the onion is translucent and beginning to soften.

Add the chipotle powder to the onion mixture and stir to combine.

Add the stock, mix well and simmer for 15 minutes until the celery is softened.

I adore Yotam Ottolenghi, I loved his recent Mediterranean series and I could eat most anything from his book Plenty. One dish I’ve made from that book several times is the Winter Cous Cous. Although perfect as it is I most often have to change the original recipe to suit my fridge contents! In fact I don’t think I’ve ever had all the ingredients for the original recipe and gradually I’ve changed it to this one which although a little different to the original it is, in my opinion, still delicious. Its full of some of my favourite things.

This makes a lovely meal in a bowl, real comfort food, perfect for this time of year. There is enough for 2 people or it’s also delicious cold if you have any left over.

Add the carrot, onion, aubergine, pumpkin, cinnamon stick and star anise and spices (first 9 ingredients) to a large roasting tray. Sprinkle with 2 of the 3 tbsp of olive oil and mix all the ingredients together. Roast for 40 minutes, lessen this time if the vegetables are cooking too quickly in an oven hotter than mine.

Add the chickpeas and water to the roasting ingredients and return to the oven for 15 minutes, until the chickpeas have heated through.

Now make the cous cous by putting the cous cous into a heat proof bowl with 1/2 tsp salt and the last tbsp of olive oil. Pour over the boiling stock and cover the bowl with a tea towel or cling film and leave for 10 minutes.

Dot the butter over the cous cous and fluff it all up with a fork.

To serve place some cous cous into a bowl and spoon over the roasted vegetables, remove the cinnamon and star anise first. Sprinkle with the lemon zest and juice and scatter with coriander leaves.

Share this:

Like this:

It’s that glorious time of summer gluts from keen vegetable growers, everything arrives at once at the moment and in large quantities! This is less of a recipe and more of an idea. I was given a large bag of runner beans, I like runner beans but have never done anything with them other than boil or steam them. I dutifully blanched and froze some but still had a lot left so I steamed a few and dressed them simply with olive oil salt and pepper, they were delicious served immediately but I found I enjoyed them even more cold as a salad the next day, they are seriously good! I ate nothing but a bowl of these for lunch!

You will see there are no quantities, just use however many beans you have and dress to taste. This really is just an idea that worked so well I wanted to share it here. This keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days, I prefer it a room temperature.

Runner Bean Salad

ingredients

runner beans, topped ,tailed and washed

extra virgin olive oil

fresh ground pepper and sea salt

method

Cut the runner beans to bite size pieces then steam until tender.

Drizzle with olive oil, enough so that all the beans get a good coating.